Corruption Currents: From Gadhafi’s Daughter to Hacking the Federal Reserve

Wall Street Journal

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Mike Lucas

Bribery:

A second audio tape was released Thursday purporting to show Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan talking to his son about taking a bribe on a business deal. The prime minister denounced the recording as a fake. Also, a Turkish court released five men who were arrested in December as part of the corruption probe rocking the Erdogan government. (NBC News, Al Jazeera America)

A look at the case of the first person to be convicted under Canada’s new Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. (Forbes)

A former SNC-Lavalin executive is alleging the engineering giant put the daughter-in-law of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi on its payroll in 2011. The company said Thursday it wouldn’t comment on the allegations. (Canadian Press)

Long-term care pharmacy company Omnicare Inc. has agreed to pay the government $4.19 million to settle allegations that it engaged in a kickback scheme. (press release)

Kara Brockmeyer, chief of the SEC’s FCPA unit, spoke this week about FCPA trends and the agency’s enforcement priorities for 2014. (Mintz Levin)

Australia signed an agreement this week with the Vatican to crack down on illicit money flows. (press release)

Cybercrime/Data Security:

A British man charged with hacking into U.S. Federal Reserve computers faces up to 12 years in prison if he is convicted. The father of Lauri Love said his son is declining to comment on the allegations. (BBC News, WSJ)

Chinese President Xi Jinping will serve on a committee set up by the Communist Party that will look into how the country can better control the internet. (WSJ)

A study looks at efforts by the Assad regime in Syria to censor the internet and limit information to people in the country. (Newsweek)

Sanctions:

More than 80 major Democratic Party donors are calling on President Obama to fight efforts to levy new sanctions against Iran over fears new penalties could jeopardize negotiations over curtailing Iran’s nuclear program. Iran says while it open to talking about its nuclear program it has no intention of shutting it down. (National Journal, Reuters)

The pro-Israel lobbying organization American Israel Public Affairs Committee has yet to weigh in on a bill that would hit Iran with a new round of U.S. sanctions. (Washington Free Beacon)

An attempt to add an Iran sanctions amendment to a veterans benefits bill helped to send the measure down to defeat Thursday in the U.S. Senate. (Politico)

Whistleblowers:

The head of the Project on Government Oversight, a group that helps whistleblowers expose fraud at the Pentagon, is stepping up its security after an attempt to steal files from its offices. It’s not the first time an organization supporting whistleblowers suffered a break-in. (Newsweek, The Nation)

General Anti-Corruption:

Bitcoin services startup Circle Internet Financial was issued a subpoena by federal prosecutors in New York as part of the investigation into the bankrupt Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. (Al Jazeera America)

People who deposited bitcoins with the Mt. Gox exchange that declared bankruptcy Friday in Japan may be out of luck when it comes to trying to reclaim their money. (Reuters)

Does the lack of prosecution of chief executive officers show they are more powerful than the heads of the world’s biggest drug cartels? (Al Jazeera America)

A U.S. Department of Treasury official makes the case for how FATCA will cut down on overseas tax evasion. (CNBC)

The head of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told lawmakers a criminal investigation into $20 billion in missing oil money will start after forensic investigators finish their work. (The Sun)

For many financial services firms, work remains to operationalize the governance structures they have adopted. Further, expectations regarding governance have shifted: Stakeholders now see boards as more accountable for the effectiveness of their overall governance process. This shift is real, and it is significant. It will likely amount to an expectation of greater board involvement in the means by which governance is effected, and for more active oversight by the board and its committees.

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